Amy Gutmann

Amy Gutmann - Commissioner

Since becoming president of the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, Amy Gutmann has been widely recognized for her bold and ambitious vision for the University, the Penn Compact: executing on its core values— Inclusion, Innovation, and Impact — has propelled Penn forward during an era of dramatic change. Her transformative leadership has increased Penn's diversity, interdisciplinary excellence, innovation ecosystem, and civic engagement both locally and globally.

The first in her family to graduate college, Dr. Gutmann has made access to a Penn education a top priority. She has more than doubled the number of students from low-income, middle-income, and first-generation college families at Penn. Under her leadership, Penn is the nation's largest university offering all-grant financial aid that meets the full need of undergraduate students, three quarters of whom graduate debt-free.

Global engagement has been a centerpiece of her presidency, with the creation of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, led by Vice President Joseph Biden, the opening of the Perry World House on campus and the opening of the Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing, all of which mark major new university-wide initiatives that promote global solutions and bring the world to Penn and Penn to the world.

She has also led the creation of an innovation ecosystem on a vibrantly expanded campus, which includes the 23-acre Pennovation Works, located close to Penn’s academic core.

The Pennovation Center is a flagship business incubator and laboratory, and the Penn Center for Innovation fast-tracks Penn discoveries and technologies to meet social needs.

Dr. Gutmann leads a preeminent healthcare system, featuring a premier medical school, the Perelman School of Medicine, and six major hospitals. As Philadelphia’s largest private employer and healthcare provider, Penn has an economic impact of $14 billion annually in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gutmann has continued her award-winning scholarship and pathbreaking public service. Her seventeenth book, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of American Healthcare (with Jonathan D. Moreno) will be published in 2019 by W.W. Norton. President Barack Obama selected her to chair the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues from 2009-17. The Commission published major reports on important issues of science and healthcare.

Dr. Gutmann graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University. She earned her master’s degree in political science from the London School of Economics and her doctorate from Harvard.